[DavefromSt.Vital]

Was at the Ice game on Saturday. As esquire has said, it is a "unique" experience. I have long-since been to all 20 OHL arenas (the WHL equivalent) and many others so I have seen many things.

The idea of having a lot of fans on one side and few on the other is reminiscent of the Ottawa 67s who currently play under the north stands of the Ottawa football stadium. The small number of rows on the larger side reminds me a bit of Flint (ugh!)

However, the best comparator that I have been to is Owen Sound. They are the last OHL team that still plays out of the big rink at a community centre that holds a couple of thousand people with a lot of people standing in the concourse. Every other team has built a 4-10K arena.

Everyone at the game was into and it was a good time. There were only two concession areas, but the food was normal for a junior game - hot dogs, burgers, poutine, tacos in a bag and a carvery station. $5 tall cans before the game is almost unheard of in Ontario. While the seats are benches with a row-long back, the seats are steeply raked so you really don't need to worry about sightlines.

Two quibbles, one minor, one major. Some of the in-game promos were bizarre in that there was virtually no chance of the contestant answering correctly. It is OK for contests to leave a possibility of failing, but having no chance is just weird. A far bigger problem is brand recognition. My teenaged son and I were asked by numerous people around town why we were there for the weekend. I always said a Winnipeg Ice game. Every single person responded with with some version of you mean the Jets or their arena. I would respond, no the Winnipeg Ice. Every single person said oh you mean the Moose, and I would say no, the junior hockey team the Winnipeg Ice. The only time I would get through to people was if I mentioned the Brandon Wheat Kings were in the same league. I realize with limited seating capacity there is little upside to going all out in promoting the team, but the word needs to get out to the average person in Winnipeg that there is an actual WHL team in town.

As an aside, good to see Kevin O and Munz working sports again.